Above / Currently under construction, the East Ogden Corridor in Naperville serves as a hub of convenient services and products for the care of cars, pets, shoes, clothes, appetites, banking and much more. And on April 20, 2018, Andy’s Frozen Custard is hiring!
UPDATE, April 20, 2018 / Interest in improvements to enhance the streetscape along the historic corridor again is growing, as evidenced during the recent City Council meeting. Thanks for supporting your local business community along East Ogden Avenue to keep it thriving, especially during resurfacing, now in progress through the summer.
UPDATE, April 18, 2018 / During the April 17, 2018, City Council meeting, Mayor Steve Chirico, City Councilmen and City staff discussed how to use $1.5 million in credits accrued from ComEd to begin an enhancement project along East Ogden Avenue from Washington Street to the City’s border, just east of Naper Boulevard.
Since 2008, architect’s renderings have been promoted for upgrading the landscape along the state road, originally estimated to cost $5 million. Funding the entire project will take time.
Potential plans to bury power lines, whether to select green or blue as the color for replacing street signs at 20 intersections (estimated at $40,000), and painting unsightly transformer boxes (estimated at $100,000) currently are in the mix of plans for East Ogden.
Reflections of past City Council meetings recall many discussions over the years about the appearance of business signs and their locations along the East Ogden corridor. How big, how high and how set back is pleasing? Tuesday Councilman Kevin Coyne urged creating a deadline regarding so-called “pole sign” use to help resolve often-debated discussion that never seems to end.
Another unresolved sign discussion that dates back at least 20 years in this writer’s recollection is how to “welcome” visitors as they enter Naperville city limits. What kind of “Welcome to Naperville” sign best will mark the spot from one municipality to the next along Naperville’s border?
For more information about Tuesday’s discussion, watch the meeting saved online in the archives of City Council meetings. Scroll down to the agenda item “1.18-295.”
An editor’s note at the bottom of this post highlights a little history about Ogden Avenue and its namesake, the first mayor of Chicago.
Love the Land of Lincoln. Find out more about its Adopt-A-Highway programs.
UPDATE, Oct. 10, 2017 / An Open House hosted by the City of Naperville, Naperville Development Partnership and the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce began at 9AM Tues., Oct. 10.
At 1:30PM, organizers reported a steady stream of interested business and property owners as well as residents seeking information about proposed streetscape enhancements for the East Ogden Corridor.
Find the open house to your right as you enter Iroquois Center from Ogden Avenue, Suite #709. The day-long open house continues until 7PM.
Attendees were asked to fill out an opinion card with questions and comments about the before-and-after features depicted in the renderings. The tabletop presentation included posters with the proposed streetscape improvements, gateway concepts, welcome and wayfinding signs, streetlights, banner identifiers, landscaping and buried utility lines, just for starters.
One poster featured a graphic of how to fund the proposed projects via an East Ogden SSA (Special Service Area) assessment in partnership with the City of Naperville. Cost estimates are projected at slightly more than $4.7 million to complete the enhancements all in one phase.
A streetscape pictured in a rendering for proposed landscape upgrades at the corner of Ogden and Columbia featured a large shiny “N,” one of the attractive ways that could help brand the location so motorists recognize they’re in Naperville along that portion of Ogden, organizers said.
In a light-hearted moment, a visitor asked, “What’s the N stand for?”
And Dick Dublinski, Director of Public Works, quickly quipped, “Knowledge.”
Anyone unable to take advantage of this open opportunity to provide public input is encouraged to send comments and/or questions about the enhancement initiative and its costs to NDP@naper.org.
Above / Members of City staff from the Transportation, Engineering and Development team were available to answer questions and listen to comments at the open house.
Original Post / NAPERVILLE, Ill. — An open house on October 10 will introduce proposed streetscape improvements for the East Ogden Avenue Corridor to property owners, tenants and other interested individuals and engage attendees in a discussion of potential funding options for the improvements.
Open House 9AM-7PM Tues., Oct. 10, 2017, at Iroquois Center
The open house, which is hosted by the City of Naperville, the Naperville Development Partnership and the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce, will be held from 9AM to 7PM on Tues., Oct. 10, at the Iroquois Center, 1163 E. Ogden, Suite #709, in Naperville.
The proposed streetscape improvements are part of the larger Ogden Avenue Corridor Enhancement Initiative, which was adopted by City Council in 2008 to increase the economic viability, improve the sustainability and enhance the character of the corridor, which stretches from Washington Street to the City’s eastern boundary.
The City has completed a number of action items identified in the plan since its approval in 2008, including the adoption of necessary municipal code and zoning amendments, creation of an enhancement initiative to encourage private property improvements, and the installation of new pedestrian signals, ADA intersection improvements, parkway trees and sidewalk sections to eliminate gaps.
The proposed streetscape improvements include burying overhead utility lines, upgrading roadway lighting, installing bus shelters and enhancing major intersections identified as “gateways” to the corridor, among other projects.
At the open house, City staff will also address potential funding sources, specifically gauging property owner interest in a public-private partnership through use of a special service area (SSA) to pay for a portion of the improvements.
Questions about the open house can be sent to NDP@naper.org.
Story submitted by Kelley Munch, Communications Specialist for the City of Naperville. (PN Photos, Updated Oct. 9, 2017)
RELATED POST / Dog Patch Pet & Feed is located along the East Ogden Corridor
Editor’s Note / Named for the first Mayor of Chicago, William Butler Ogden who served from 1837 to 1838, Ogden Avenue is a state road with nearly 38 miles of rich history, architecture and commerce as it stretches from the Near West Side of Chicago to Naperville, winding through town beginning at the Lisle border to its end at US 30 in Montgomery, just beyond Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora. Because of the historic mix of structures and enterprises along the arterial street— independent businesses, mom-and-pop businesses, strip malls, supermarkets, banks, medical and office buildings, senior residences, apartment houses, restaurants, churches, service shops, automobile dealers, Naperville North High School, and an occasional private home—many of the commercial signs along the way may seem outdated and not well maintained. We hope streetscape improvements with monument signs to “welcome” folks to Naperville as well as burying overhead utility lines will find ways also to celebrate the history of one of Naperville’s oldest and longest streets, Ogden Avenue.
Mindful that some folks are pushing to “rebrand” the area with a new name, nothing better describes the location of this business hub better and quicker than East Ogden Corridor. Rather than try to erase its history, now let’s find ways to give Ogden an organic facelift and mark some of its popular locations from the past, grateful for the memories that have helped this city grow and prosper. —PN
